A-Level Psychology Revision Tips and Tricks

Hi guys!

Thought I would just create a form for everyone to share their tips for revising Psychology for upcoming mocks and exams. If anyone also has any questions for revising psychology hopefully we can all chip in and help!

Have a good day guys!

Chloe x

Reply 1

-Francesca-

9

For the approaches and 12 mark questions, I create a table for A01 and for my A03.

I did this for my December mocks and I got a B, and I'm only a first year.

Reply 2

Lia22

17

How are you guys memorising all the content, because I'm struggling? And for the evaluation on 16 markers, how are you going about writing those?

Reply 3

taliakx

10

I recommend the tutor2u videos on youtube (especially for issues and debates, they're very comprehensive) for general revision on difficult areas
For 16 markers, I've been summing up AO1 in 6 key points (1 mark for each), and when it comes to evaluation I write 3 paragraphs in the following structure:

1. Point (e.g. A strength of family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia is that it has clinical evidence to support it)
2. Evidence (Read et al. concluded that 69% of female patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia had a history of physical/sexual abuse or both in their childhood)
3. Explanation (This proves that difficult family relationships in childhood are associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood)
4. Counter-argue if possible (However, despite this being a strength, such evidence has a weakness because schizophrenia might have distorted patients' recall of their childhood experiences)
5. Link (Although there is evidence to support family dysfunction as an explanation, the evidence might lack validity which means we need to be careful about generalising such results to real-life)

Hope this helps!

Reply 4

chloeematt

OP

9

Original post by Lia22

How are you guys memorising all the content, because I'm struggling? And for the evaluation on 16 markers, how are you going about writing those?

I'm just doing flashcards and hoping that works. In addition my teacher suggested making essay sheets. So getting an A4 piece of paper and split it down the middle. At the top put he essay title. AO1 on the left side, and write down all the AO1 points you would write down then on the other side write all the AO3 points. That's what I've started doing for revision and we'll see how that works out for mocks.

Reply 5

yeahthatonethere

16

Original post by Lia22

How are you guys memorising all the content, because I'm struggling? And for the evaluation on 16 markers, how are you going about writing those?

I made flash cards for everything and it really helped me get all the content stuck in my head! I got an A last year in my AS exams so I'd say it really did help. If worst comes to the worst, you don't have to memorise evaluation points for studies as most of them can be deduced from the key points of the studies and so on so if you know the study inside out it should be alright (but the best bet is to try and remember evaluation). You can also try to tech someone else the content cause If you can teach someone else then you know your knowledge is solid!

Hope I've helped!

Reply 6

Shockwave109

9

Hey guys,

I got an A* in the new spec AQA psychology and my number one tip is using flashcards to revise for essay plans. Make sure they have enough information so you know the content but keep the points for AO3 evaluation quite open so you can really go into detail with your ideas during the exam. Practise timed-essays and make sure you can pick up all of the hints and evidence given for questions with a STEM so you can get full marks in AO2. Do some light revision for the research methods topic because they can throw that in anywhere, even if it's a simple mean, median and mode question. Make sure you're aware of the command words and how the examiners can word the question because this generally throws people off too. Even though the past papers are quite different, it's worth looking through them because sometimes the questions are similar. The specimen papers are a must - you don't have to do them in timed conditions, so you can even do them by writing notes. But you should definitely do them. If you don't feel like it, then I recommend going through the questions with the answers side-by-side so you can see what parts of the questions are important and how the marks are distributes across the assessment objectives.

Reply 7

Shockwave109

9

It's also a good idea to use the tutor2u online quizzes for each section as well. I found these really helpful. I've put some random revision quiz website links below:

Approaches: https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/a-level-psychology-topic-quiz-approaches

Psychopathology:https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/psychopathology-topic-test

Research Methods: https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/research-methods-topic-test

Reply 8

TearsofJoy

3

It may be a bit late to do it, but my teacher said that the best way to reinform knowledge was to read over all your notes from the previous lesson after the lesson ended and just before the next one. :smile:

Reply 9

jesswhitexox

5

Original post by taliakx

I recommend the tutor2u videos on youtube (especially for issues and debates, they're very comprehensive) for general revision on difficult areas
For 16 markers, I've been summing up AO1 in 6 key points (1 mark for each), and when it comes to evaluation I write 3 paragraphs in the following structure:

1. Point (e.g. A strength of family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia is that it has clinical evidence to support it)
2. Evidence (Read et al. concluded that 69% of female patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia had a history of physical/sexual abuse or both in their childhood)
3. Explanation (This proves that difficult family relationships in childhood are associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood)
4. Counter-argue if possible (However, despite this being a strength, such evidence has a weakness because schizophrenia might have distorted patients' recall of their childhood experiences)
5. Link (Although there is evidence to support family dysfunction as an explanation, the evidence might lack validity which means we need to be careful about generalising such results to real-life)

Hope this helps!

You can also add (instead of a counter argument) issues, debates and approaches. So for example you can bring in gender or culture bias into findings from an experiment or debates such as holistic vs. reductionism and nature vs. nurture.

Reply 10

taliakx

10

Original post by jesswhitexox

You can also add (instead of a counter argument) issues, debates and approaches. So for example you can bring in gender or culture bias into findings from an experiment or debates such as holistic vs. reductionism and nature vs. nurture.

I forgot to add that! Thank you :-)

Reply 11

chlo-livv20

4

How do people feel about issues and debates? Because me and certainly the majority of my class feel as if it's a weak topic area and are really worried about it, is there any advice or good resources to help on it?

Reply 12

KylieemilyJ

13

i did my psychology alevel nearly 2 years ago but i found that writing out cards with the information in groups and doing loads of past papers helped me. I came out with a C at alevel which i know isnt great and i know i could have done so much better but my revision materials were really helpful. i had 4 massive ring binders of information, one for each unit of the course. Just keep your notes tidy and throw away any excess paper you dont need once youve written up your notes. it makes it less daunting to look at. it was my favourite subject at alevel too :smile:

As others have said IDA and Gender/Culture bias are also really important. Gender is probably the easiest for obvious reasons.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 13

Harris247

2

Hi, Im currently a first year with my AS exams coming up, really struggling to remember all the topics A03 and A01. So if anyone has any effective advice on remebering it I would be extremely grateful. I tried flashcards but they just get too much.

A-Level Psychology Revision Tips and Tricks

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